This paper describes the political context that shaped the formation of independent Indonesia’s first major piece of labour legislation – Undang Undang Kerdja 1948 (Labour Act 1948). The Act is often conceived of as a highly progressive piece of labour legislation, introducing provisions that granted Indonesian workers extensive legal protection. Despite its significance, existing literature has only focused on the Act’s normative content and not its formulation; its drafting process has attracted little attention on the part of labour historians and legal scholars. This article is the first to explore these facets of the Act. Within the framework of the state-labour relationship, it examines the drafting process of the Act by means of a critical analysis of the historical data obtained from the documents of Badan Pekerdja Komite Nasional Indonesia Pusat (Working Committee of Central Indonesian National Committee, BP-KNIP). It is argued that the Act was a product of the identification, construction and regulation of labour at a time when the revolutionary Indonesian state was consolidating its power over society.
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations